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Fuming fanbois flood 'flimsy iPhone 5 Wi-Fi' forum

Networking not working, claim puzzled punters

Punters on an Apple support forum claim they are struggling to use Wi-Fi networks with their iOS 6 gadgets. The trouble seems to affect new iPhone 5s as well as iPads and older iPhones updated to the latest version of Apple's mobile operating system.

Users of iOS 6, writing under a headline "iPhone 5 wifi issues", reported a number of disruptions to Wi-Fi reception: some devices are unable to find nearby wireless networks; some can't establish a working connection to them; and some appear to work until the link drops off after a few minutes. The forum has been viewed roughly 60,000 times and had more than 730 posts since it was opened on 21 September.

One punter, going by the name of Dpollit, wrote:

Received two iPhone 5s. One connected right away to my wireless network at home (WPA2 Personal). The other would see the SSID, but fail to ever connect. LTE is working fine and without issues.

Took my phone into Verizon, figured out that I could connect to hotspots of other phones, so we thought the issue was resolved. Came back home to find it still wouldn't connect to my Wi-Fi. Tried to reset to factory defaults, reset network statistics, restored from backup in iTunes, tried to remove all password protection on my Wi-Fi, etc. Nothing resolved the issue.

Dpollit said that Apple's support teams are aware of the issue, but were just telling customers to wait for a fix:

I gave Apple tech support a call, they told me that this was a "known problem" that was found with other iPhone 5 units on the release day. They suggested I wait 1 to 2 days to see if it resolves on its own, if not call back. I don't see how it would "resolve on its own" without any iOS update, but that is what they told me to do.

Twiddling with router settings seemed to fix the issues for some people: several reported that switching off the wireless point's security settings worked even though it's unwise to operate an unencrypted Wi-Fi network. Others were able to reconnect to their networks by using different channels. In the case of a small number of commenters, they were allowed to get replacement iPhone 5s back at the store - although that seemed to be an unusual outcome.

The Reg asked Apple whether it was aware of the issue and if there's a fix in the works, but we haven't heard back. ®

Bootnote

Apple has also finally halted the epic support forum discussion on iPhone 4S battery life, headlined "iPhone 4s Battery Life?", after 1,700,338 views and 12,787 replies since the first post in October 2011. It runs over 853 pages, and the last post was submitted yesterday.